I recently read about the origins of the American labor movement. Specifically, the birth of the Industrial Workers of the World and a group called the Wobblies, a nickname given to members of the IWW. At its peak, the IWW had over 150,000 members in 1917, with worldwide membership and significant power and influence. While the IWW was a socialist-leaning organization in theory, many of its core values were woven into the DNA of the American labor movement, and were undoubtedly pivotal in the development of organized labor and a powerful working class after the Industrial Revolution. The similarities between some of the IWW’s origins and ideologies and Bitcoin are important, and will be illustrated through quotations rather than by burdening you with in-depth history.
All quotes are from Wobblies: A Graphic History of The Industrial Workers of the World (Buhle/Schulman.
Origins and Origins
“No one can pinpoint exactly where the inspiration for the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World came from. The origins are many, both in the United States and abroad…”
Likewise, the nickname “Wobble” has no clear origin. Naturally, some mythology about Bitcoin comes to mind, and while Bitcoin’s origins are clearly documented in white papers and emails, its creator or creators are shrouded in mystery. As Bitcoin gained popularity, its growth was decentralized and organic. In parallel, while the IWW and the American labor movement were earlier inspirations, it pioneered labor organizing across racial, gender, religious, and other demographic divides.
“After the Civil War, huge industry grew faster than anyone could have imagined, with previously unimaginable fortunes accumulating for bankers but millions of desperately poor workers, working at low wages or unemployed in recurring economic downturns.”
From the financial crisis, to the post-Covid billionaire wealth accumulation, to the current boom in artificial intelligence, robotics and self-automation, this story is all too familiar. Yet the recession was almost completely prevented, replaced by government intervention, which now places large systems like pensions and social security on the equivalent of welfare and government dependency.
Oscillators and Bitcoiners
“The oscillating man, whether male or female, Asian or Western, black or brown or red or white, was just an ordinary human being in his physical build.”
We feel the same way about Bitcoiners. We have all met some of the most inspiring people in our lives in this space. It is the character, courage, and determination that allows individuals to discover and understand Bitcoin, as well as the character-building journey that Bitcoiners must undertake to fully understand Bitcoin and share it with a world that complements what many of us believe to be the most talented and motivated communities in the world.
“Their story was collaborative and collective, and did not rely on any one hero or heroine—as heroic (or tragic) as the Wobblies’ individual lives might be.”
Kill your heroes. Death to ego. Bitcoin doesn’t need any of us.
Solidarity: A Movement Larger Than the Individual
“The Wobblies world is at its best made possible by solidarity across racial, gender, and sexual lines.”
The beauty of Bitcoin is that it does not require trust between those who transact with each other. In doing so, Bitcoin allows humans to dismantle the daily head-to-toe analysis we conduct on each other every day; an analysis that instinctively highlights our differences, which are rooted in paranoia and fear. While the blind solidarity among Bitcoiners is the antithesis of “trust not, verify,” there is a strong natural bond among Bitcoiners. I believe that the future of Bitcoin, when it faces its next biggest test, will depend largely on the deep solidarity among those who believe in the genesis of Bitcoin and its core values and the blind commitment to honesty, truthfulness, and distrust.
AFL vs Knights of Labor
“The earliest mass movement for an eight-hour day, in 1885 and 1886, highlighted the different roles played by two types of labor movements. The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1883, sought to organize only skilled workers (who were almost entirely white and male)… while the Knights of Labor, founded in 1869 as a secret society… extended its membership to include almost all workers (except Chinese), including African Americans and women.”
The AFL and its exclusive country club branding continued after the eventual demise of the Knights of Labor and still exists today as the AFL-CIO. Reading about the different philosophies of the AFL and the Knights of Labor brings up similarities within the Bitcoin community, criticisms we often hear about Bitcoin Maxi’s, as well as Bitcoin vs. Crypto. I leave it to you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions here, as the similarities are by nature loose affiliations at best.
Movement
“In the industrially advanced United States, the working class was ready to take control of society and replace ‘politics’ and ‘the state’ with direct rule. As Marx pointed out of the Paris Commune (and Lenin repeated of the Soviets), the existing apparatus of government could not be infiltrated and taken over in part; it had to be dissolved and replaced by a modern, genuinely democratic form of government.”
There are two camps of thought on Bitcoin, one that calls for the complete collapse of the current financial system and a migration to the Bitcoin standard, and the other that insists that Bitcoin can coexist with and even outperform the current financial system without the latter collapsing. While money is not identical to government in this parallel, the amount of money that has become entrenched in the old financial system is enormous, and this always sparks an interesting debate among Bitcoin proponents.
“For the industrial workers of the world…the familiar problem of the small size of the socialist movement in the United States could be solved in a new way. The ‘education’ of workers to become socialists, through newspapers, speeches, and election campaigns, had been too passive and too unsuccessful. Workers needed to educate themselves, through their own actions and self-organization.”
There are some conflicting parallels here. Right away, I think of a core value of Bitcoiners, which is that no one can take this path for you. Proof of Work cannot be bypassed or overridden. No individual or group can cheat in the pursuit of knowledge, whether about Bitcoin or the system it is preparing to replace. Bitcoin journeys by individuals and membership-based organizations, in the absence of ongoing learning and education, often end in loss or disappointment. Those who do the work find their knowledge of money flourishing, and few, if any, ever turn back after they have a deeper understanding of Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, my mind wanders to the oligarchy’s attempts to wage a negative media campaign on all things Bitcoin for at least a decade. It has slowed the train down but it has not worked. The other day, I asked random people on the 3rd Street promenade in Santa Monica to share their thoughts on Bitcoin. Their thoughts were overwhelmingly positive, and had some basis in truth. The move to discourage people from pursuing Bitcoin was an inevitable delay at best. Because nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
Conclusions
On this Labor Day, I look at the deeply divided party political system of today’s dominant global power. As I see unions aligning themselves with one party, at the expense of creating division within their own ranks, I see a labor movement that has strayed from its original foundation. While the IWW has risen and fallen, its apogee has been an unshakable movement, one of solidarity and commitment to the worker above all else. And there is power in that. I see parallels today in Bitcoin.
The core principles of Bitcoin transcend our differences and are worth fighting for. At Proof of Workforce, our way of fighting for these values is to educate workers, unions, pension funds, and municipalities about Bitcoin. In doing so, we not only share Bitcoin as an asset or the Bitcoin network, but we also pass on the origin and value of Bitcoin, so that it is not lost to time.
Finally, Bitcoin is a natural evolution of the labor movement, sharing many similarities and parallels. Unlike the labor movement, however, workers can rely on Bitcoin, devoid of any allegiance to any political party, leader, or oligarchy. In this sense, Bitcoin and its value system stand on the cusp of being embraced by unions around the world. In doing so, unions around the world can identify with their origin story. A story where solidarity comes first, a story where workers come together to hold on to the most productive property that depends on their labor. A story where, as many workers face the risk of being gradually made irrelevant by automation and artificial intelligence, the unions that represent them look forward and claim ownership of the most productive property available to them today: Bitcoin.
This is a guest post written by our guest Dom Bay. The opinions expressed here are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.